This DOCTOR WHO Season 8 Concept Art Will Give You Nightmares

Doctor Who is known for it's incredible creature designs even comparing
it to the inventive low-budget effects of the 60s and 70s. Last season
of Doctor Who continued the tradition with terrifying creatures like
the Teller and the redesigned Cybermen. Recently, Radio Times
shared some concept art and talked with Millennium FX which helped
design the special effects and creatures. The also shared some
mind-blowing artwork by several of the talented concept artists.

Neill
Gorton, Chris Goodman, Dave Bonneywell, Brian Coldrick, Gary Pollard,
Calum5 and Kevin Walker are professional concept artists who've worked
on Hollywood films like Children of Men (2006), Clash of the Titans (2010) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001).

Click on the images to enlarge.

Deep Breath - Half-Face Man

Robot of Sherwood
The Hunter
"Mark Gatiss is really good so we often get his scripts really early on,
months and months in advance. When a script first comes through it has
all these amazing ideas and concepts and locations in it, but the
reality of what we can shoot within a TV schedule is really tight. By
the time we got to prep, the script and structure had changed. The
Hunter was a character who never made it into the episode, but I can’t
reveal what he did." - Kate Walshe, one of the SFX Producers at Millennium FX

Time Heist

Teller

"With the Teller, the script described it as insectoid, massive,
hulking, all these adjectives, but it didn’t really give us very much
detail. It was when we were in a meeting going through the script,
talking about what to shoot and where, that we came up with the idea of
the two tentacles coming together to produce the beam." - Kate Walshe

"The bulk of the design work for The Teller was done by Neill Gorton,
Dave Bonneywell and Gary Pollard. I threw in a few early designs but
the majority of my contribution was on The Teller’s straight jacket-like
costume." -
Chris Goodman
Bank Guards

Psi
"We tried to think about who the character was – he’s obviously
interested in looking cool, but technology is important for him – so we
tried to imagine future technologies but also future trends in wearable
technology. Steven was really insistent about getting a certain look. We
kept producing stuff and not getting it quite right for him. Normally
we do something, then one or two variations, and then we’ll nail it. But
with Psi we did 20 or so variations." - Kate Walshe

"I did several variations for the make-up design of the Doctor Who
character Psi, some of which can be seen in this gallery. In the
episode 'Time Heist', Psi is a cybernetically enhanced ‘gamer’ who
aides the Doctor in a bank heist. Make-up by Dave Bonneywell and model build by Nico Zarcone." - Chris Goodman

Bank of Karabraxos Guards

"One of the first designs that I have ever had made was for the Doctor
Who episode Time Heist. I did a few sketches that became the helmets
for the Guards of the bank of Karabraxos. Brilliantly realised by model maker Pete Fielding." - Chris Goodman

The Caretaker - Skovox Blitzer
“It’s like most design processes, you need to start quite loose.
Especially because of the tight turnaround with our builds, you can’t
spend too long on one design in the hope they will like it,” Rob Mayor
explains. “Unless it’s something very specific in the script, you
basically cast a wide net then gradually you see what appeals to people
and what strikes a chord. Then we start to hone down and refine the
design from there. There’s no point in doing a selection of sketches
that are kind of the same.” - Kate Walshe

"Skovox Blitzer marks the first time a design of mine has been realised as a complete character." -
Chris Goodman

Kill the Moon - Moon Spiders

"Originally, they wanted incredibly spindly legs, kind of like spider
crabs. To build
something that could actually function on set would have been so
problematic for us, so we tried to push them in a way that was possible
for us, with slightly chunkier legs." - Kate Walshe

Dark Water/Death in Heaven

Danny Cyberman
“It was a really tricky one to nail: getting across the horror of what
Danny’s going through while keeping it sympathetic. A big part of that
was actually Samuel’s performance. We can add all of this body horror,
but he has such kind eyes that we had a lot to work with.” - Kate Walshe

Mausoleum Skeleton
"It was a really tricky concept, because obviously they’re people’s
relatives, but really for the skeletons to operate the Cyber-costumes
they should have had some muscle structure. But Rachel
Talalay [the episode’s director] was quite clear what she wanted and we
were able to scale back from that to really cool, interesting
skeletons." - Kate Walshe

What is Film Sketchr?

This blog is about the often unseen world of concept design and storyboarding in science-fiction films and television. These artists work to bring the vision of the writer and director to life. My hope is you'll learn a little bit more about them. If you're an artist I hope you find inspiration from the talented artists featured.

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The images featured are the property of the respective artists and companies. They are shown to feature and demonstrate the artistic talents of the artists. I'm not affiliated in any way. No implication of copyright is implied in their use.